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Memento Mori

It’s not by chance that the Smoking Skull has become the face – so to speak – of Cigar Sanctum. The gold signet ring that carries this reminder of our mortality was designed for a fraternity of friends on their way to Havana to drink too much rum and smoke too many cigars. When we all met up in the Plaza De San Francisco that first night, I remember breaking open a bottle of Santiago 11, lighting our custom rolls and talking about everything under the stars.

Memento Mori, Latin for Remember You Will Die, is the most positive message you can carry with you. It’s not so much Remember Death as Remember Life. The ring – and now cufflinks and necklace – was created as a reminder that our time here is short and we must live every day to the fullest. The crossed cigars pay testament to this and are symbols in themselves, the growing ash mirroring our passing years. This is the language of the Dutch Vanitas paintings of the seventeenth century: the tulip drops its dead petals, a candle gives off one final spiral of smoke, the skeleton of a small bird sits, marble white, in a corner. All shout: we are here today and gone tomorrow. And so says the Smoking Skull.

So live life, be creative, make love, drink wine, show passion. And, when you find yourself lost in that perfect cigar, remember – just for a moment – that it won’t always be this way.